Sticks and Stones
by kat.richeal
Summary: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Obviously they've never met Arizona Robbins. **Previously posted under another account, but forgot password and this site is stupid so I made a new account so I can continue writing.**
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So I published this story back in late June, but I opened an account to publish late at night and I forgot the password. Even with sending a 'forgotten password' request numerous times, the site hasn't sent me an email to change password so finally fed up, I just made a new account. Sorry for any confusion and if it seems familiar, I didn't steal this story it is mine just under a different username. **

Title: Sticks and Stones  
Author: Kat Richeal  
Rating: T  
Pairing: Callie Torres, Arizona Robbins  
Summary: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Obviously they've never met Arizona Robbins.

A/N: So I know that there are a lot of post 9x24 fics out there concerning Arizona and Callie and mine can just get added to the pile. I started writing this mainly because I'm bored stiff at work with nothing to do and well I just started writing. Not sure if characters are in … well character and if they aren't I apologize. I'm not a professional writer and there is probably a lot to be desired from my writing, but this is my first fanfic so if you can be nice or if you feel like saying something mean, just twist it a little into constructive criticism. Thanks -Kat Richeal

* * *

**Part 1**

"Apparently, I lost you." Callie said softly and Arizona watched as her wife's eyes turned hard and a wall went up.

They both stood there, staring at each other until Callie took a step to leave.

"Callie-" Arizona spoke softly trying to grab her wrist.

"No!" Callie cut her off and jerked away, "Just don't. God, I'm so stupid." She said with a humorless laugh, "You put on a good show. I mean you had everyone fooled, maybe even yourself a little bit."

"I didn't-"

"Please, you've never forgiven me and so you've been what? Silently hating me?"

"I thought…mostly I was okay. I was dealing with it."

"Fake it till you make it, right?" Callie asked her with anger.

"That's not-"

"It doesn't matter." Callie cut her off.

"It does."

"No Arizona, it doesn't because whichever way you spin this, you still cheated. I'm sorry that you hate me, but I can't apologize for saving your life."

Arizona watched as Callie took a deep breath in, stood a little taller and reached up to her scrubs where her ring was hooked.

Fresh tears clouded Callie's vision as she stared down at the ring in her palm. The ring that her wife gave her on their wedding day, promising for better or worse, sickness and in health, till death do them part.

Looking over at Arizona to see tears sliding down her cheeks and anger settled low in Callie's stomach.

A year, a year of the silent treatment, then anger and somewhere around when she was getting fitted for her prosthetic something changed and Arizona let her stay and watch American Bakeoff. Slowly after that, they started to heal, or so Callie thought.

Closing her fist tightly around the ring, she gave it a squeeze.

She was so tired. Tired of everything that has happened. Wondering why Arizona felt the need to put on a show that everything was okay. Why she had to pretend to forgive her when it wasn't true. Well she heard what Arizona said loud and clear, spoken out of anger or not, it was perfectly clear to Callie what her wife has been keeping from her for the last year. Arizona would probably never forgive her for choosing her life over her leg.

She undid her fist quickly looking at the ring then tossed it on the cot in front of Arizona.

"Looks like the shows over." She whispered, before leaving the room.

"Calliope!"

Arizona stood looking between the ring on the cot and the door her wife just walk out of.

She lowered her head into her hands and started crying.

Arizona really thought that she was getting better. The anger wasn't there all the time, just occasionally when her leg was exceptionally sore and even then she was able to get her anger under control fairly quickly. She even tried to view it from Callie's point of view every once in a while.

Would she have done the same if it was Callie lying there? Probably.

She couldn't fault her wife, logically she knew that, but every time she looked down and her leg wasn't there, she couldn't help it. Her wife was an orthopedic surgeon, one of the best, so why couldn't she figure anything out this one time? She built a neck out of nothing once, yet she couldn't save the leg.

_Stick out your leg and I will go grab a bone saw and let's even the score._

"God," she whispered, wondering where that had come from. One minute she was telling Callie it wasn't her experience and the next thing she knew, that came out of her mouth. "It always does come back to the leg."

She was sorry she slept with Lauren, had realized it was a mistake right after it happened, but after everything that was spoken during her and Callie's fight, she felt…lighter.

Like she was actually holding that all in since Karev told her that Callie was trying also, and it made her think that maybe she should try a little bit harder not only on learning to adjust to the prosthetic, but to forgive her wife and get rid of the anger.

She reached down and grabbed the ring and although she felt lighter she still felt her chest tighten.

Her pager going off was loud in the quiet room, and a 911 page from Karev had her sticking the ring in her pocket and heading to the NICU to see what the emergency was.

By the time she got there, Karev had the situation handled and she jumped slightly when Lauren came up next to her, putting her hand on Arizona's arm.

"We still need to talk." Lauren said, quietly.

"We don't. I made a mistake. We shouldn't have done that."

"But we did, and I meant what I said before, I like you."

"I'm married. I have a daughter. I had a moment of weakness and it can't happen again, it won't." Arizona finished strongly.

_Oh god,_ she thought, _Sofia_.

"Arizona-"

"I can't do this." She said quickly, then looked at Karev, "You have everything handled here, Karev?"

"Yep, it's good."

"Page me if you need me."

Arizona turned and walked away, ignoring Lauren. She couldn't fool herself and say she didn't feel anything. There was definitely attraction there. Lauren's strong personality and her forwardness reminded Arizona of herself… or better yet of her old self. The Arizona before the crash and before her life fell apart.

She made it halfway down the hall before Lauren caught up with her and ushered her into the bathroom.

"Lauren-"

"Okay, I get it, you're married and you feel torn, but Arizona I like you-"

"You don't know me! So you read a couple articles and you know some stuff, but you don't know me. I was serious, what happened earlier was a mis-"

Arizona's rant was cut off when Lauren quickly leaned in and kissed her.

For a split second Arizona stood frozen, her mind and body struggling to decide on what to do. All the feeling earlier when the first kissed came rushing back when Lauren's tongue ran across Arizona's lips, seeking entrance.

An involuntary groan left her mouth, her body winning the struggle when she started kissing Lauren back.

Lauren backed her up against the door, hands on Arizona's hips flexed a little.

When Lauren's mouth left hers and started kissing along her jaw, Arizona pushed against Lauren's shoulders to stop her.

"No, no I can't. I have to go see my daughter." She said breathlessly. Opening the bathroom door, she forced herself not to look at Lauren as she walked out.

**TBC...**

**A/N: I have the next couple chapter written out, I just have to type them so chapter 2 should be out Monday, no later than Tuesday.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2 – This will jump between Callie and Arizona's POV, but it's happening at the same time.**

* * *

The storm was still raging outside when Callie left Arizona in the room. She quickly made her way towards the nearby bathroom to try and clean up a little. What she really wanted was to get out of the hospital; she wanted to grab Sofia and leave. After attempting to make it look like she hadn't been crying, Callie made her way towards the daycare and made quick work of picking up her sleeping child. When she looked out the window Callie debated whether it was wise to make the short trip home in the downpour or to just hide out in the hospital. In the end, she decided to head home, knowing she had to get out of the building.

Since she finished with the patients from the bus and her pager hadn't gone off since, she decided to just leave. If they really needed her, they would page her, but most people in the pit were there for safety and she wasn't sure she would be much help right now to any patient anyways. She stood in the doorway watching the rain come down hard and then glanced at her semi-sleeping daughter curled up into her chest, cursing herself for not being more prepared at least with an umbrella. Balancing Sofia in her right arm, she was able to get the left sleeve of her leather jacket off. Switching her in daughter to her left arm, she repeated the process until her jacket was off and Callie was able to cover Sofia with the leather by draping it down her front from her shoulders.

With a deep breath, she walked out the hospital without looking back.

* * *

After walking out of the bathroom and leaving Lauren behind, Arizona went to the elevator and let her mind wander while she waited. Everything was falling apart. Everything that she worked so hard to control was unraveling. The elevator dinged and she waited for the couple people to exit before she got on.

'Control.' She thought with a shake of her head and pressed the button that would take her to the daycare as she heard Laurens voice in her head and it disgusted her. _"You are allowed to lose a little bit of control."_ Control was the one thing she had to keep everything together. Then again, at the time, with Lauren it felt… Arizona didn't really understand it herself. She remembered Lauren saying that to her with her hand on the door knob, every intention of leaving the room, but something happened in that second, something she couldn't comprehend, and she was locking the door.

She knew what happened in the on-call room was just sex based on mutual attraction and it seemed Lauren knew exactly what to say to make her fold. Then there was Callie. Arizona loved her wife; there was no doubt about that. There were some mornings though when she would wake up, she would forget that she didn't have a leg until she had to grab the crutches to leave the bed or put on her prosthetic and that love would be forgotten for a moment and replaced with anger. She was able to control the anger now, though. She no longer lashed out or threw hurtful words at Callie, until in that room where it all exploded out of her.

The elevator doors opened and she quickly made her way to the daycare, needing to see Sofia. Even if her daughter was sleeping just being able to watch her sleep or touch her cheek would be enough. A couple kids were awake, but she wasn't able to see her daughter.

"Can I help you, Dr. Robbins?" the daycare worker asked.

"I'm just looking for Sofia."

"Your wife came about 25 minutes ago and picked her up."

"Thanks." Arizona replied, feeling her stomach drop as she left. Walking down the hallway she thought about where Callie would've gone. She didn't think her wife would leave with the storm, but Callie was upset and with their apartment right across the street, it was likely.

Fifteen minutes later, searching Callie's office and a few of the on-call rooms will no success, Arizona decided to go down to the pit and see if anyone had seen Callie.

The pit was a controlled chaos and a quick glance around didn't produce her wife so she walked up to Owen.

"Hunt, have you seen Callie?"

Owen Hunt looked up at her, frustration on his face, "No, I've had her paged several times already and she hasn't responded. If you see her, tell her to get her ass down here."

Feeling disheartened, she nodded towards Owen and made her way to the elevator, debating whether or not to make the trip home to see. Pressing the button, she jumped slightly when Kepner appeared out of nowhere.

"I watched her leave the hospital a little while ago with Sofia."

Arizona swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. "Th…thanks Kepner."

"No problem. I haven't told Hunt. Even if she does own part of the hospital, I figure she could still get in some sort of trouble." Kepner finished with a shrug.

Arizona could only nod her thanks and went to walk into the elevator.

"Dr. Robbins," Kepner said, sticking a hand out to stop the doors from closing, "she didn't look too good." Kepner removed her arm and as soon as the doors closed Arizona let out a sob.

She had to get to the apartment. She had to talk to Callie and see her daughter.

* * *

By the time Callie walked into the apartment, she was soaking wet and Sofia seemed to be wide awake. She set her daughter down to play with her toys in the living room and headed towards the hall closet to grab a suitcase. Starting with Sofia's clothes, Callie grabbed enough to last at least a week and haphazardly tossed the toddler clothes into the suitcase. Walking back through the living room, she set it on the couch and watched Sofia play with her toy for a couple moments. Her daughter loved that toy. Mark had gotten it claiming it would help with hand-eye coordination saying that if Sofia was going to become a doctor, then she had to learn these things early. All Callie seen in the toy was a truck that made noise and shot out balls from the back that her daughter would have to crawl after.

She shook her head to clear the memory of the conversation with Mark and went to her and Arizona's bedroom to grab some clothes and toiletries.

At the doorway, she faltered. She still loved her wife, even with this whole thing going on. She couldn't just turn it off. Even when Arizona was treating her like crap, while she was going through the aftermath of the plane crash she couldn't stop loving her. Callie knew it would be a long road when she was sitting at Arizona's bedside waiting for her to wake up after the amputation. She knew there would be anger, she promised Arizona to save the leg and here she was without it.

She walked through the door when anger overtook her. '_No,'_ Callie thought, '_she doesn't get to do this. She is a doctor, and she knew that the odds were high that the leg had to be amputated when the antibiotics weren't working. She had me make her a promise that, on some level, she knew I wouldn't be able to keep.'_

Before she went to grab her stuff, she quickly changed out of her wet clothing and put on some sweats and a t-shirt. She then made a couple trips to get what she would need and brought her belongings back to the couch. Feeling exhausted, Callie sat down on the couch between a pile of her clothes and a suitcase and watched as Sofia start to rub her eyes trying to stay awake. Although she knew it wasn't impossible to get a room at the Archfield, even with the late hour, Callie decided to put Sofia to sleep for the night and leave in the morning. Picking up her daughter, Sofia immediately laid her head on Callie's shoulder and Callie placed a kiss on her daughter's head, and then made her way to Sofia's room.

Sofia was pretty much asleep when Callie placed her in the crib. She watched as her daughter got comfortable and her stomach clenched. Sofia was so innocent, so very innocent and Callie hoped to shield her from what might be happening in her small world. She traced a finger lightly down Sofia's cheek and let out a shaky breath.

More determined now, Callie stood up straight and after one last look at Sofia, she went to finish packing her suitcase. Tomorrow morning she would go to the Archfield to get a room, maybe take a leave of absence from the hospital to work through everything. As she was folding a shirt, Callie shook her head. She really had no idea what to do at this point. All she knew for certain was she couldn't stay in this apartment, the place she called home for so long, the place her and Arizona shared so much together. Callie was able to rearrange Sofia's clothes and pack most of hers before she heard keys in the door and froze.

**TBC... **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I know , I know it's been forever! Life this summer was a real bitch and things have recently just started to calm down. During my little hiatus though as I was working on this chapter and as it's getting extremely close to S10, I'm having doubts about continuing this story. As this is my first fanfic, I know that my writing isn't the best and I'm not sure I can live up to the story line and all the other awesome authors who have took this story line on. I started to doubt myself so much, I re-wrote this chapter 4 times then finally took all 4 copies and used sections from each part. **

**Here's the horrible part to my followers, I'm thinking of ending the story at this chapter. I have 3 options and here they are: **

**1. I left the end open and if you really want me to keep going I can, but it won't be the best writing you'll ever read and updates may be stretched out as I try to figure out where to go  
**

**2. I can leave it as is and you the reader can decide in your head how you want it to end**

**3. Within the next week or so I should be able to write an epilogue to kind of wrap it up fully and hopefully do it justice.**

**Please just let me know and if I don't get any opinions, then I will just end it here.  
**

* * *

**Part 3**

Arizona went to put the key in the door and froze. What would she do if Callie wasn't on the other side with Sofia? She had to be there. Callie wouldn't just leave, would she? Fitting the key in lock, she took a deep breath before she walked in. The breath left her lungs when she seen Callie and then her breath hitched once again when she seen her wife pause briefly looking at her and then continuing with her packing.

"Callie-"

"No. I'm not doing this right now.'

"Please just listen to me."

"I said I'm not doing this right now."

Arizona sighed and went to Sophia's room. She watched as her daughter slept, her innocent daughter whose life was about to turn upside down. A few tears fell as she gently stroked Sofia's cheek. She had to talk to Callie, there was no way she could let Callie leave with Sofia.

Bracing herself for a fight she went back to the living room.

"You can't leave."

Callie's only response was a humorless laugh.

"Callie, I'm serious, we need to talk about this. You can't just-"

"Don't tell me what I can't do." She paused for a fraction of a second, "Especially when it regards my daughter."

Arizona couldn't stop the flinch at her wife's words. "She's my daughter too!" She passionately replied. "Where are you even going to go?"

"Tonight I'm sleeping on the couch and tomorrow I'll check into a hotel until I find something more permanent." Callie replied, glancing at Arizona and seeing a shocked look on her face. "How did you expect this to go, Arizona? Did you think I would just be fine with it? That we would just continue moving on? This isn't something we can sweep under the rug! Why are you even worried about this? Isn't this what you wanted? To-"

"NO!"

"To break my trust like I broke yours? For the last damn year I have been taking nothing but crap from you! At the beginning I understood, you were pissed and rightfully so. You're life changed in ways you didn't want it to. So I took it. I let myself be your punching bag and every day I just took it while I tried to break through to you, I kept coming back for more. I let you hit me with everything again and again and again. That's my fault, but I'm done Arizona. I'm done being your punching bag and coming back for round after round." A quiet sob left her.

"Callie, please just talk-"

"What would you like to talk about?" Callie asked, throwing the last piece of clothing in the suitcase, then roughly zipping it up, "The fact that you still hate me for your leg or the fact that you fucked someone else?"

Arizona winced.

"So, tell me Arizona, what the hell do you want to talk about?"

Arizona took a deep breath. Now that Callie gave her an opening she didn't really know how to start and she said the first thing that came to her mind, "I trusted you."

"I know, you said that earlier. Believe me, I remember. What could there possibly be left to say? I wasn't on the plane, I wasn't there, I lost nothing. Did I cover everything?"

"It's true," Arizona whispered, "you weren't-"

"There! I know!" Callie yelled, interrupting her once again. Throwing the suitcase on the floor by the couch, her hard, cold stare focused fully on Arizona, "You made me deal with everything concerning the crash because you didn't want to! I was at the meetings, talking with the lawyers and the others deciding on what to do! So if it seems like I was acting as though I was out in the woods then it's only because you checked out and I had to pick up the damn pieces!" Callie took a deep breath and lowered her voice, "Know this though; I will not apologize for making the call to cut off your leg and saving your life. If I was back in that moment, and Karev came in again and asked me what to do since nothing was working, I would make the call again. Not just for selfish reasons either, not just so I would still have my wife, but for our daughter. That child-" Callie raised her arm and pointed towards Sofia's room, taking a deep breath, she continued, "That child in there doesn't care if you have one leg or two, because either way you're still her mama, and she deserves to have you around for as long as possible. There was a way to save your life and I did it so that our daughter would have you around when she turns 3 or 16. You should be able to be there when she comes home one day saying she has her first boyfriend or when she gets married. I won't apologize for that no matter how much you hate me."

Arizona wiped at her tears, "I don't hate you." She said quietly, "it's just...complicated"

"No, it's really not, Arizona. You've been blaming me since the moment you woke up, you wouldn't let me be your doctor and you sure as hell weren't letting me be your wife! And I loved you so I was willing to be what you needed and that was a punching bag. So for months and took it and I just can't do this anymore. I'm done."

"No! We're not done. This isn't how this ends!

Callie let out a humorless laugh, "Arizona, it ended the minute you slept with her."

Arizona watched as Callie lay down on the couch, covering her eyes with her arms trying to end the conversation. "You can't just quit! We need to talk about this and work on us!"

Callie quickly sat up, her back towards Arizona, "The time to talk was after the plane crash. The time to talk was every morning, afternoon or evening that passed in silence. To talk now, it's a waste. For months you've been walking around acting like everything was fine. Was that part of the plan?" She asked her voice low and keeping her back to her wife, "Make me think everything was fine before you slept with someone else? Was that the final twist of the knife, to let me know what it's like to lose my trust in someone?"

"There was no plan, Callie! I don't... I just..." Arizona let out a frustrated breath. How could she explain something to Callie when she barely understood it herself?

Before she could try to explain, Callie started talking, her voice resigned, "I tried Arizona. It wasn't just an empty promise I made. I spent hours fighting and trying to convince Owen that my plan would work. I didn't go about this wanting to amputate, I had every intention..." Callie broke off and tried to muffle a sob, "I'm so tired and I just...I'm done."

Arizona stared at Callie's back. She wasn't sure where to go from here. Her eyes darted from Sofia's room to Callie to the suitcase and Arizona knew that if she let Callie walk out the door, she might never come back. Walking around to the other side of the couch she sat down on the coffee table facing her wife.

"Callie please." Arizona whispered and went to grab her wife's hands in her own, but Callie pulled hers away, stood up and started pacing.

"Please what, Arizona? What is there really left to say?"

"Then just listen."

"I don't want your excuses."

"I didn't plan this! She came out of nowhere. I don't even love her."

"And what, you think that makes this better? You just hopped into bed with a practical stranger, but it's alright because it was just a quick fuck and meant nothing to you?"

Arizona shook her head, nothing was coming out right and she felt like she was just making things worse.

"Tomorrow morning I'm taking Sofia and staying at a hotel," Callie told Arizona once again, "and when I get situated into an apartment, we'll talk about visitation. We will be parents to Sofia and that's it because it's like we are on this merry-go-round and we keep going in the same viscous circles over and over again and I'm so tired. So I'm getting off. I'm done." Callie finished, tears falling down her cheeks as she got situated for her night on the couch.

Arizona stood there for a moment, watching her motionless wife. Knowing the conversation was over for good, she decided to spend more time watching Sofia sleep. After an hour, she headed back towards their bedroom pausing to watch her sleeping wife on the couch. She would get up early in the morning and try to talk to Callie again before she left. She would spend some time tonight getting her thoughts together so she would be able to try and talk to Callie and have her words make sense.

* * *

Arizona bolted up in bed, the alarm startling her out of her deep sleep. Slamming her hand down on the offensive object, she rubbed her eyes and quickly went through the process of putting her prosthetic back on. She would take a shower after she was able to talk to Callie. As she stood up, a yawn escaped her and she gently shook her head to fully wake up. Last night she spent over two hours going over in her head what she would say to Callie this morning and hopefully it would be enough to get her to stay and work on their marriage.

Arizona paused in the doorway staring at the couch and her gut twisted.

The couch was empty.

The blankets her wife used the night before where neatly folded on the end.

The suitcase that was there the night before, also gone.

Tears welled up in her eyes and she used the door frame to support herself as grief and shame washed over her.

Callie left with Sofia.

Her wife and daughter were gone and it was all her fault.

**A/N: So there it is. Hopefully I did it justice and it wasn't too all over the place and blending my different chapter copies worked out well. So I'm leaving the fate of this fic up to my readers, what shall I do? 1,2, or 3. If you have a moment drop me a pm or review and let me know!**

**If this happens to be the last chapter, I would just like to say thanks to everyone who followed my first story. Keep an eye out because I do have a storyline in the works (not related to s9 or s10 in anyway) that I will hopefully be posting within the next month.**

**Kat**


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